DANCE

DANCE; Elegant Movement In Hot Surroundings

By LINDE HOWE-BECK

Published: January 7, 2001

MONTREAL—
THE collision of hot colors and cold lines in Jose Navas's home echoes the tension in his elegant dances. Fierce lime green edges generic white kitchen cupboards, while sunburst yellow and mellow burgundy play on the walls of the simple little apartment in a trendy section of central Montreal, reminders of the surrealistic contrasts in his choreography for his company, Flak.

If the passionate shades represent Mr. Navas's nostalgia for his tropical homeland in Venezuela, is his love of crisp and icy movement influenced by the arctic winters of his new home in Canada?

He doesn't have an answer. Nor does he want to define his choreographic style. ''Too soon,'' said Mr. Navas, who formed his company only five years ago. ''My style is in transition. I think I'm still shopping for ideas. I'm still learning.''

No matter. Mr. Navas's remote, whirling gestures within sensual environments pack an emotional wallop that has already attracted plenty of attention for Flak. The company, which has appeared in 20 countries and is well known on the European festival circuit, now becomes the first foreign group to appear in the Joyce Theater's 15-year-old Altogether Different festival, which starts Wednesday and runs through Jan. 28. Flak is one of seven featured companies, and Mr. Navas's first eveninglong work, ''Perfume of Gardenias,'' is the one piece in this year's series being produced in association with the festival.

The purpose of Altogether Different is to give small companies accustomed to intimate theaters a chance to expand their audiences by appearing on the Joyce's larger stage. Linda Shelton, the executive director of the Joyce, said the festival presents groups that are forging new dance directions but are as different from one another as possible.

Altogether Different traditionally focuses on New York-based troupes that aspire to larger reputations. Back for the fourth time, Mark Dendy Dance and Theater opens the festival with a raunchy celebration of sexuality, ''I'm Going to My Room to Be Cool Now, and I Don't Want to Be Disturbed.'' In their third appearance, Irene Hultman Allstars close the run with a mixed bill. Other festival choices include Chamecki/Lerner; the John Jasperse Company; the premiere of Wally Cardona Quartet's tribal ritual ''Trance Territory''; and a retrospective by Armitage Gone! Dance.

Of all these shows, Flak's is the most complicated to stage. ''Perfume's'' elaborate lighting design, by Marc Parent, is ''going to be a stretch for us technically,'' Ms. Shelton said. Mr. Navas has agreed to adapt the piece, which has already been shown in different versions in The Hague and Ottawa. The full version has been seen only in Montreal, where it played to full houses for three weeks last fall.

''Perfume'' illustrates Mr. Navas's elegant orchestration of lighting, sound and set design, which accentuates movement opposites, like intense speeds that burst from calm cores. Instead of filling the stage voluptuously with feathers as he has done several times in the past, Mr. Navas has given ''Perfume'' a vaguely minimalist feel with a two-tiered set, edged in lacquer red, that cheeps with cricket sounds. In this exotic environment, he plays with different shades of beauty -- light and dark, real and dreamlike, clothed and nude.

Inspired by a song his father sang to him as a child, the piece grew out of a duet commissioned by the Korzo Theater in the Netherlands for two Venezuelan dancers, Manuel Perez and Maria Ines Villasmil, who join Mr. Navas and three other dancers in the expanded ''Perfume.'' The song, about desire and unrequited love, led the choreographer to explore what he calls ''the other side of the moon'' -- the flip side of beauty. He uses the promise carried in the song by the giddy scent of the gardenia as a metaphor for the dark aspects of beauty. The dance is dedicated to his father, a former journalist in Caracas.

At 35, after a decade of choreographing and performing solos and two short group works, Mr. Navas felt ready to choreograph a full evening's piece. Although his reputation as a formidable dancer helped launch his career as a choreographer -- he holds a 1995 Bessie (New York Dance and Performance Award) and the 1996 Dancer of the Year prize in Caracas -- he has been in no hurry to create big works. ''I'm still learning,'' he repeated.

One reason for his caution may be that for several years his life seemed to be in perpetual transition. Last season he achieved a kind of stability. Flak opened a studio in downtown Montreal, and Mr. Navas became a Canadian citizen. He speaks about the financial, social and personal support he has found in Canada for his choreography, the work ''I'm going to do for the rest of my life.''

''I have a peacefulness today,'' he said. ''I have freedom to be an artist and to be gay. I feel I have the right to express myself, and I have the space to try things out. The support system around me gives me opportunities.''

In the mid-80's, Mr. Navas moved to New York from Caracas, where he had three years of dance experience with the Taller de Danza Contemporanea. In New York he studied Merce Cunningham's technique and at the same time joined the Lucinda Childs company. Later he danced with Randy Warshaw, Stephen Petronio, Michael Clark and several independent choreographers, including his mentor, William Douglas. He began to choreograph in 1991 after moving to Montreal. A fascination with beauty, reality and the darkness that lies behind them has always enticed Mr. Navas. His early works shared themes of death and dying.

CALLING himself a frustrated filmmaker, he approaches choreography with a cinematographer's eye for detail. Inspired by Mr. Cunningham, William Forsythe, Trisha Brown and particularly Pina Bausch (''She gave me inspiration for years,'' he said. ''She gave me faith. I want to get up from my bed and dance after I see her'') -- Mr. Navas said his ambition is to make dances that trigger strong reactions.

''I feel able to touch people, to push them to discuss things,'' Mr. Navas said. He's delighted when spectators react angrily to his work; negative feedback, he said, is as much a measure of achievement as a standing ovation.

''Perfume'' was two years in the making, in five residencies on two continents. Mr. Navas developed movement material with dancers who agreed to be part of the process even though they weren't going to be in the finished production. He chose three composers he has never met and worked with them by e-mail. After a year, he was satisfied with contributions from Pierre Berthet in Liege, Belgium, Joao de Bruco in Vienna and Bob Ostertag in San Francisco. Laurent Masle, a composer and longtime Flak collaborator in Montreal, put the musical puzzle together. ''Perfume'' was shown as a work in progress in Budapest and Bratislava, Slovakia, near Vienna, in May before its world premiere at the Canada Dance Festival in Ottawa last June.

Japanese geisha traditions influenced Mr. Navas's choice of the visuals for ''Perfume.'' He researched the geisha life style extensively and found a connection between dancers and geishas: ''short life, hard training,'' in his words. Contrasts that he discerned between the geishas and their rituals provoked the spare, angular lighting and movement designs that rub against the exotic setting and the ominous soundscape.

At one point, the slender figure of a young woman lightens the serious mood by flitting about the stage under golden lights to the sound of a cricket orchestra. Her appearance is another of Mr. Navas's about-faces. She is a vision who banishes all reality from the stage: the sculptural nude figures striking archetypal poses in the foreground, the male duo planting flowers and copulating in the background. For Mr. Navas, the woman represents a vision of the hereafter.

''I wish heaven would be like that, this beautiful young dancer,'' he said. ''It is what I wish for my dad, for me, for everyone.''

Photo: Compagnie Flak performing ''Perfume of Gardenias,'' which explores what its creator calls ''the other side of the moon.'' (Cylla Van Tiedemann)

Linde Howe-Beck is the senior dance critic for The Gazette in Montreal.